Great British Bake Off: The shameful fat-shaming of Claire leaves a nasty taste

Hurray! The Great British Bake Off is back, but sadly so are the nasty viewers
- who took to Twitter last night to fat-shame Claire, the first baker booted
off the programme. Claire Cohen, an avid fan of the show, points the
finger

Claire Goodwin was fat shamed during the first episode of GBBOPhoto: BBC

When Claire Goodwin became a Great British Bake Off finalist, she probably didn’t imagine that she’d be able to lay claim to a number of series firsts.

She was, as we now know, the first baker to be booted off the show. She was the first to cry (time check: 22 minutes in). And she was the first to be shamed on Twitter. For no sooner had the 31-year old speech therapist from Cheshire picked up her wooden spoon, she’d been labelled ‘fat Claire’ by social media commentators.

This was fat-shaming at its most base level. Talk about low hanging fruit. There were jibes about ‘the fat bird’ not being able to make cakes. There were suggestions that Claire should take part in an eating contest, rather than a baking one. Some questioned whether she might eat the other contestants buns. She was even called a 'dirty bitch' and a 'pig'.

<noframe>Twitter: Jacob - That wasn't the first time she's cried over cake; well, lack of at least. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23GBBO" target="_blank">#GBBO</a>.</noframe>

<noframe>Twitter: Josh Bache - Just seen Claire use hundreds and thousandsð&Yuml;³ off you go you fat melt!! <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23GBBO" target="_blank">#GBBO</a></noframe>

And when she was voted off? Twitter was flooded with cruel quips about her potential for comfort eating:

<noframe>Twitter: Soraya French - Claire was shit, just go home and eat all the cakes <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23GBBO" target="_blank">#GBBO</a></noframe>

Even the fake Mary Berry Twitter account - which, despite being a parody, has more than 24,000 followers including Stephen Fry - couldn't resist joining in and stirring up more vitriol.

Interestingly, my timeline also contained a number of gay men criticising others for being too bitchy (and bemoaning the lack of 'gay hotties' on this year's show).

<noframe>Twitter: Tom Ellis - Shame to see Claire go but after seeing the gays go for her for being a bigger girl maybe she's been saved in a way. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23GBBO" target="_blank">#GBBO</a></noframe>

It was, frankly, revolting. For the thousands of people who took to social media to share their excitement at the new series, there were just as many who'd clearly been waiting, like slavering predators, for their next Bake Off target. How thrilling for them that, after shaming Ruby Tandoh for being too skinny and too tearful last year, they had fresh meat.

The question is, where does fat-shaming stop and innocent, if patronising, stuff begin? Because amid the trolling there were also plenty of people who insisted on calling Claire 'jolly', 'cuddly' and commenting on her 'bags of personality'. Personally, I found that just as uneccessary.

But what Claire's fat shaming showed, more than anything, is that it's time to rethink our language of fat and attitude towards it.

Here was a woman clearly dedicated to her baking (although no one's denything that she had a bad day in the kitchen) - full of enthusiasm and passion. She'd put herself forward for the nation's most beloved baking programme - hell, most beloved TV show full stop. She had been brave enough to actually DO something to achieve her dream. Yet we virtually pinched, punched and picked on her.

The 2014 Bake Off contestants

Well, I think it stinks.

When a famous women like Millie Mackintosh posts an Instagram picture of her toned bikini body, she's labelled a danger to young women and criticised for offering herself up as 'thinspiration'. But when the world and their Twitter accounts fat bashes an ordinary member of the public - one whose only claim to fame is arguing with Paul Hollywood over the inclusion of cream in a Swiss Roll - we've surely got to take stock.

We need to wake up. British women are officially the fattest in Europe. We eat too much, we don't exercise enough. While the models in our magazines and reality stars on our TV screens have gradually got thinner and thinner,our nation has grown plumper. A staggering 90 per cent of us have been on a diet and will spend 17 years of our lives restricting what we eat. Half of all teenage girls, we are told, have dieted, too. And healthy eating has become a minefield. We're constantly advised on the evils of pur favourite food groups - sugar being the latest to be demonised.

So in what reality is publicly fat-shaming a contestant on Britain's best loved baking programme, in any way healthy? We're not going to encourage Britain to lose a few pounds by pointing a finger and laughing.

We know nothing about Claire - other than her love for hundreds and thousands. She might be unhappy with her body shape. She might be a fat activist and part of the acceptance movement. She might be completely fine with who she is and not give two hoots about what was said on Twitter.

But what we do know, is that she's the latest example of how the Twitter trolls have spiralled out of control. And there's nothing at all jolly about that.

(Handily my Telegraph colleague, Dr Brooke Magnanti has created this useful guide for Claire and others who find themselves at the mercy of the foul-mouthed Twitter army.)